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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Where Do You Write?

The link to this website Where I Write has been making the rounds lately. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here to check it out. Go ahead. Take your time and browse the pictures. We’ll wait for you. (Cue Final Jeopardy theme music.)

I’ve intended on blogging about this for a while now, but kept putting it off until I cleaned my office. Having decided THAT will never happen…at least to the degree I’d like…I’ve decided to hell with it and show you the naked truth of the matter. I present…MY OFFICE:There isn’t a wide enough angle lens to make it appear bigger than it is.

Okay, I realize you can’t post photos of you own writing space in the comment area, so you’ll have to just describe it for us. Where do you write and what does it look like? Cluttered? Neat? Are there furry editors like mine on the premises? Or do you set up office at your local coffee shop?

And does anyone have an office anything like any of the pictures on that website???

11 comments:

Gina
said...

Annette -

You wouldn't want to see a photo of my writing space. Believe me. I have, however, described it in a poem:

I write within a dim and timeless place,Not by my whim, nor genius' grace -The light blew out, poor victim of a surge.As for clock batteries, I haven't had the urgeTo see how much time slips awayIn keyboard touch, day after day.

I write in a tiny room that was once a nuersery for previous owners, surrounded by stacks of paper (only a genius can make order out of chaos) but with a view of the woods out the one window and my dog usually snoozing near my feet. If I could just tune out all the activity in the hall behind me, well, I'd have finished 10 novels by now....:)

My sanctuary encompasses a bedroom on the second floor. When I write, I saddle up to an old kitchen table that holds my computer and my over-worked reference books. I climb up and down the stairs to fetch my coffee,so sometimes that becomes my exercise for the day. My dog Molli sits at my door, protecting me from intruders. What else can I say, it is bliss.

I used to have a nice big office with French doors out to the patio. That was before we moved into a new house in January, and DH got the big office (he makes most of the money; it seems only fair) and I set up shop in the 6x12 walk-in closet next door... It has a window, right next to my desk, but the desk itself is tiny, and overflowing with paper. I juggle at least three different businesses (writing, real estate, and tax preparer for both), plus all the school related paperwork for the kids tends to end up on my desk, too. I work on a desk-top; the laptop keyboard feels too small and my nails grow long enough to pop the keys off between manicures. I have a filing cabinet, a file box, a trash can, and that's pretty much it. Oh yes, and all my clothes on racks and shelves behind me. The floor is a speckled wall-to-wall carpet from Lowe's and the walls are the off-white they were when we moved in, since my office/closet is the only 'room' we haven't gotten around to painting yet. I usually have a small dog laying on my feet.

My writing space is cozy (okay, it's bloody small). I have to share it with a bed, armoire, file cabnet with printer, a small drawing table on which resides my Acer laptop and speakers, an overflowing trashcan, an equally overflowing recycling bag of dead Diet Dr. Pepper jugs, a phone that only rings at the worst times, a floor the color of...just a minute (quickly lifting a bag of books on Imperial Germany)...blue -- I think -- covered with books, an electric box fan, a large tiger tabby, and (at the moment) a rather stinky little black toy poodle. While the Health Department hasn't closed me down, I do admit to violating the angle of repose quite regularly ("Whadda ya mean landslides ain't redecorating?"). Stratigraphy has proven very useful in finding things (papers, CDs, DVDs, chocolate covered expresso beans, rice cakes, and -- hello, here's that stapler I lost last month). Somehow, writing gets done.

I have a cramped little space in the corner of the kitchen that I thought might work, but I rarely write there. I have my laptop & I'm usually at the kitchen table or on the couch in the living room. When it's nice outside, sometimes I'll sit on the deck. I'm considering using my son's room while he's away at school. Even when he's home, he sleeps on the couch in the family room.